ON SAINT FELIX, PRESBYTER, AND FORTUNATUS AND ACHILLEUS, DEACONS, MARTYRS AT VALENCE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 212.
PrefaceFelix, Presbyter, Martyr, at Valence in Gaul (S.)
Fortunatus, Deacon, Martyr, at Valence in Gaul (S.)
Achilleus, Deacon, Martyr, at Valence in Gaul (S.)
By the author G. H.
Valence, an ancient city of Gaul, situated on the river Rhône after its confluence with the Isère, acknowledges as heralds of the Christian faith, either the first or among the first, Saints Felix the Presbyter, Fortunatus and Achilleus the Deacons, sent there by Saint Irenaeus Bishop of Lyon. The Acts of martyrdom by a contemporary author, The Acts of their mission and martyrdom were learnedly composed by one who attests at the outset that he prefers to set forth things contemplated by himself with clear faith, rather than to receive things heard and doubtful with uncertain acknowledgment. Laurentius Surius published them on this day, which we moreover give from an ancient Trier codex of the Imperial monastery of Saint Maximin.
[2] The Prologue, which the beginning of the Acts indicates was prefixed, starting from the word "Igitur" ("Therefore"), as often elsewhere, omitted by the copyists who compiled Legendaries or Passionals, is thus far wanting. As to the place of the Passion, all the most ancient Martyrologies agree with the Acts. The ancient Martyrologies assign it to Valence in Gaul. That which is ascribed to Saint Jerome has, in four copies, this: "At the city of Valence in Gaul, Felix the Presbyter, Fortunatus the Deacon, Achilleus the Deacon." The same, but with Achilleus omitted, are read in the Reichenau MS, and in another of the Most Serene Christina Queen of Sweden. In the Roman MS of Cardinal Barberini these things are handed down: "In Gaul, SS. Felix the Presbyter, Fortunatus and Achilleus the Deacons." With an elogium taken from the Acts, Usuard thus writes: likewise Usuard, "In Gaul, at the city of Valence, the birthday of SS. Felix the Presbyter, Fortunatus and Achilleus the Deacons; who when they had converted the greatest part of the aforesaid city to the faith of Christ, were thrust into prison by Duke Cornelius: then scourged for a very long time, and with their legs broken, they were bound around the whirling of wheels, they also endured smoke in the suspension of the rack, and at last were dispatched by the sword. Ado, Ado also describes the same things somewhat more fully: which it is pleasing to add. "In Gaul," he says, "at the city of Valence, the birthday of SS. Felix the Presbyter, Fortunatus and Achilleus the Deacons, who, sent by Blessed Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr of Lyon, to preach the word of God, when they had converted the greatest part of the aforesaid city to the faith of Christ, were thrust into prison by Duke Cornelius: then, after very long scourging with the harshest flogging of sinews, their hands afterwards bound behind their backs, and their legs broken, were bound around the whirling of wheels, with the bitterness of smoke placed beneath, suspended day and night continuously in the extension of the rack, at last they were dispatched by the sword." Thus he writes: similar things are held by, and they report them as having suffered at Valence in Gaul, all MS Martyrologies everywhere, with which are Notker, and others. the author of the Martyrology published under the name of Bede, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius, Molanus, Grevenus, and others with today's Roman Martyrology.
[3] We marvel at one oversight of Peter de Natalibus, who in book 4, chapter 83 of his Catalog, took the elogium of these Martyrs from Ado (as very often elsewhere), and expanded it here and there with his own words, They are attributed to Spain by Peter de Natalibus, and wrote that Valence was a city of Spain; perhaps unaware that there exists in Gaul a lofty city, also called Valence. Taking this occasion, the one who recently fabricated the Chronicle under the name of Flavius Dexter, at the year 255 number 5 devised the following: "In Lusitania, at the city of the Vettones Valentia, the holy Martyrs of Christ suffered, and in the Chronicle of Dexter. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus, sent by Saint Irenaeus to preach against the Gnostic heretics on April 23." These things, as most certain, were immediately seized upon by Tamayo Salazar, Rodrigo Caro, Francisco de Bivar, and others. But some, older than the fabrication of Dexter, on account of the words of Peter de Natalibus, attributed it to Valencia, the metropolis of the Valencian kingdom in Tarraconese Spain: but whether they also established in those parts the city of Besançon, from where SS. Ferreolus and Ferrutio sent a messenger to Saint Felix and his companions, we have not yet read. Theophilus Rainaudus in his Little Index of the Saints of Lyon, treating in the first place of Saint Achilleus and his companions, takes it ill that those things which among the Valentians in Gaul are settled and clearer than light should be shaken or even called into doubt.
[4] Joannes Columbus, in book 1 Of the Deeds of the Bishops of Valence, asserts that these Martyrs were slain by the sword in that place where afterwards was the Priory of Saint Felix; and it is said that Remegarius translated the bodies into the temple, The bodies were translated to the greater church, dedicated to the holy Martyrs Cornelius and Cyprian, which is now the principal church of the city, formerly named from Saint Apollinaris the Bishop. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, after a long eulogy from the Acts, adds these things: "A not small portion of whose bodies, at last translated from Valence to Arles, a portion taken to Arles, and received with every testimony of reverence by John the Archbishop, was placed in the church of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Order of the Redemption of captives, with distinguished veneration: whence it came about that these Martyrs are also numbered among the Patrons of the diocese of Arles: and to them today the due worship of veneration is rendered, by the performance of a celebrated Liturgy in the mother church itself, and by the sacred anniversary of their glorious birthday throughout the whole diocese." Thus he writes. Because indeed the people of Arles under a double rite celebrate on April 23 the feast of Saint George the Martyr, at second Vespers the office is performed by the Chapter for SS. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus the Martyrs, where they are celebrated on April 24. whose feast they celebrate also under a double rite on April 24, and at the Lessons of the second Nocturn, taken from the Acts, these things from the Chartulary of Arles are added: "The relics of these holy Martyrs which are at Arles, the illustrious Count Walfrid Mengri, Marshal of France, having received from the clergy of Valence in Gaul, presented to John Archbishop of Arles in the church of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Order of the Redemption of captives, to be placed there. For as he willed that the accession of dotal goods should be made to the Hospice (which he established adjoining it), so he willed that the accession of this sacred gift be made to the church."
[5] Saint Davila, Bishop of Jaén, in book 3 Of the Veneration of sacred relics, chapter 8, Whether any relics are at Valencia in Spain? hands down that in the greater church of Valencia is preserved the body of Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse in France, and of Saint Felix the Presbyter, and of his Deacons Saint Fortunatus and Saint Arquilogus, according to others Achilleus, Martyrs. The body of Saint Louis, after Marseilles was stormed and plundered, Alphonsus King of Aragon and of Naples seized and carried to Valencia. Concerning the others, Davila seems to have believed this, thinking that they had suffered there. But because Alphonsus Solorianus in the Sacristy of the church of Valencia, and Gaspar Escolanus in his decades, do not mention Saint Felix and companions, that which is said of their Relics as existing there is rightly rejected by Tamayo Salazar. Antonio de Yepes, or in the monastery of Saint George in Navarre? in Century 6 of the Benedictine Chronicle at the year 1052 chapter 10 asserts that in Navarre in the monastery of Saint George of Azuelo are preserved the head of Saint George, and four bodies of holy Martyrs Eulogius, Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus: enclosed in two arks skillfully made, together with the instruments of martyrdom, and the linens in which they were wrapped. Whenever ancient monuments and testimonies confirming such a translation, if any exist, shall be produced, a clearer light will perhaps shine upon this history.
[6] The time when these Saints suffered martyrdom seems able to be investigated in this way. First, they were sent to Valence by Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, later a Martyr. Sent by Saint Irenaeus the Bishop, He, succeeding Saint Photinus, crowned with martyrdom in the year 177, presided over the said Church until the year 202, when on June 28 in the persecution of Severus he attained the laurel of martyrdom. Secondly, the three Martyrs were at Valence for some time, they labored long, inasmuch as they drew about a third part of the people to the worship of Christ. Thirdly, Duke Cornelius marvels that, after Severus the Prince's severe slaughter of the people of Lyon in these places, after the death of Severus, so nearby, any traces of Christianity had remained. From these indications we gather that Severus the Emperor was then dead, which occurred in the year 211, on February 4, leaving two sons, I. Septimius Geta Caesar and Antoninus surnamed by later generations Caracalla, raised to the Empire with equal right; but Geta, in the very next year, was killed in his mother's bosom by his brother Antoninus, a savage man and one precipitous in excessive fury. Afterwards a vast multitude of the supporters of Geta was slain, to many thousands, and among these the famous jurisconsult Papinian. Therefore Antoninus alone reigned, under Antoninus Caracalla, called Aurelius, whom, as Aelius Spartianus testifies, his parent Severus had seen in dreams as about to succeed him. Wherefore immediately he went out to the soldiers, and Bassianus, his elder son, he called Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: then, as the same writer explains, "when Severus was going against Albinus, on the journey at Viminacium, his elder son Bassianus, having added the name of Aurelius Antoninus, he called Caesar." Hence we do not doubt but that in the Acts, the persecution of the Aurelian Prince is to be understood as begun by his father Severus, slain about the year 212. continued under his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caracalla, and thus these Martyrs would seem to have suffered about the year 212.
ACTS OF THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
By a contemporary author. From the Trier MS of Saint Maximin collated with the edition of Surius.
Felix, Presbyter, Martyr, at Valence in Gaul (S.)
Fortunatus, Deacon, Martyr, at Valence in Gaul (S.)
Achilleus, Deacon, Martyr, at Valence in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 2896
By a CONTEMPORARY author. FROM MSS.
[1] Sent to Valence by Saint Irenaeus, Therefore the most blessed Irenaeus, Bishop of the city of Lyon, afterwards a Martyr, in whom, by divine disposition, the foundations of the faith to be established were laid with marvelous firmness; appointed Felix the Presbyter, so called as much by conversation as by name, Fortunatus, in whom the very name already promised the riches of consummation to be in him; and Achilleus the Deacon, for the city of Valence, as a seminary for the preaching to be imparted. Whom the multitude of pagans there received with the zeal of spiritual grace, cultivated with marvelous honor, cherished with the affection of veneration. they shine with miracles. When they desired continually to exercise the duties of the burden and honor imposed upon them by earthly labor and heavenly warfare, such strength of miracles shone forth in them in a short time that those vexed by the infestation of spiritual wickedness, oppressed by deformity of limb, half-dead from the weakness of various sicknesses, armed with the power of heavenly assistance, they restored to pristine vigor of mind and strength of body. All which things, by the virtues of signs, by the suffrages of graces as well as of praises, delayed, cannot be sufficiently unfolded by the course of narration: since it is rather worthy to set forth things contemplated with clear faith, than to receive things heard and doubtful with acknowledgment.
[2] they set up a hut, Therefore the aforesaid men, already stretching from great things to better, not far from the city of Valence toward the East, that is, that part from which, divinely called, they had come, chose a small hut, through which they might obtain a heavenly dwelling-place; and with humble diligence, but with most sublime devotion, they established themselves there. And there, constantly instructed by the continued modulation of psalms, fortified by the labors of vigils, fed by the sparing of fasts, strengthened chiefly by the Lord, the multitude of Gentiles they drew to the grace of baptism, by the pious and praiseworthy violence of exhortation and faith. they convert many,
[3] When, in due course of time, Saint Felix had allowed his limbs, wearied by the assiduity of watching, to rest a little in sleep, he narrated to the brethren a vision, shown by the designation of heavenly indication, saying: "I saw a place, by a vision of Saint Felix, gleaming with the flashing of starry splendor, blooming with a variety of ineffable flowers, redolent also with fragrant aromas; tabernacles too, distinguished with starry gems, shining with the beauty of gleaming gold: in which five lambs, gleaming with snowy whiteness, b gathered up the flowers of white-leafed petals painted with saffron, delighted by the inviting pasture, with distinguished pleasantness. When, terrified by the immensity of the magnitude, and rejoicing at the wonder of the virtue, they are invited to heavenly joy: I gazed; I heard these things said, proclaimed by the revelation of a divine voice: 'Well done, servants, proved by the devotion of faith, disciples of Irenaeus my servant, who have prepared the small talents, enlarged with multiple enrichment; enter into the joy of your Lord, who will make you rejoice with the exultation of perpetual gladness, joined to the fellowship of your brethren.'" While therefore they enjoyed this delightful narration, Fortunatus and Achilleus, kindled with the ardor of spiritual grace, said: "Glory to thee, fabricator of heaven, founder of the world, they praise God. promiser through the shown generosity of thy ineffable gifts, because through thy servant Felix, thou showest to us, unworthy and undeserving, the mysteries of heavenly treasures, and urgest us c by the exhortation of thy own voice, and strengthenest us by the invitation of so great a reward: grant that, fortified by the help of thy protection against the impending assault of the adversary, we may merit, by the protection of thy support, to despise the darts of his raging fury, and by thy conquering in us, to arrive at the crown of consummated passion: because although it be thine, that which the human mind attempts to overcome out of piety, yet it is of thine doing, that for recompense, in contest, it has done what it has done."
[4] Therefore, when such a prayer had been completed, a certain brother arrived with a letter, sent by SS. Ferreolus and Ferrutio, they are strengthened by the letters of SS. Ferreolus and Ferrutio, whom the aforesaid most blessed Bishop had appointed to instruct d the church of the city of Besançon. The letter contained the following series of writing: "To the most pious lords, brothers in Christ, Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus, Ferreolus and Ferrutio greetings in the Lord. The moderator of the ages, and redeemer of souls, and the most abundant rewarder of his Confessors, deigned to show me his servant some hidden things of his secrets by the declaration of a revealing vision, which things I have also striven with eager desire to bring to the notice of your holy brotherhood. When I, after the watches of vigils were passed, was relaxing the limbs of my little body to be quieted, to be restored a little by sleep; I saw, with the framework of heaven opened, by angelic hands, with the banner of the Cross held forth, five crowns brought forth, gleaming with the splendor of gold, and by another vision they are provoked to martyrdom: and sparkling with the flashing of gems. I also heard a voice, as terrible with marvelous awe as pleasant with the promise of an invitation to be sought, saying thus: 'Disciples of Irenaeus, who received his command with prompt devotion, receive the kingdom of heavenly glory, promised by my reward.' I believe therefore, most holy brethren, that the miracle of this vision summons you to the triumph of martyrdom. And because a stronger spirit ought always to be prepared where the outcome of a higher contest e is hoped for, by the suffrage of divine help, let us strengthen ourselves by the support of mutual exhortation: so that when the trials of impending persecution come, we may be able to have faith prepared for the torments of punishments, if we wish to obtain the victory of the exultation attained." Here again Blessed Felix, what had been revealed to him, and what he had disclosed to his brethren Fortunatus and Achilleus with faithful report, declared in a written page to Ferreolus and Ferrutio.
[5] They prepare themselves with psalms and hymns: Then indeed the men, whom the manifest rewards had kindled, to seize the marks of so great a triumph, continually by psalms and hymns, with continued modulation repeated, prepared their minds. Therefore at that time f under Aurelius the Prince, with the fury of persecution raging, Duke Cornelius entered the city of Valence. Whence when for the sake of boasting, exalted by the extension of his power, terrible with the swelling of arrogance, surrounded by a throng of people, he was going forth; he heard SS. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus singing with the accustomed invocation of prayer. They are heard by Duke Cornelius, Whose voices, when any heard them, soothed them with the delight of such sweetness, that as if angelic choirs singing together, the clearest sounding organs seemed to be resounding with tuneful modulation. The place of the Psalm was this: Psalm 65:4 "Let all the earth adore thee, O God, and sing to thee, let it sing a psalm to thy name, Most High, alleluia." Cornelius, learning this from a report, as much astonished with wonder as inflamed with the fury of a cruel mind, said: "What sound has struck the secret of my ears? Have perhaps, after Severus the Prince's severe and praiseworthy slaughter of the people of Lyon, any traces of Christianity remained in these places, which both sacrilegiously despise the deities, and audaciously condemn the decrees of the Princes?" To whom the soldiers going before said: "There are here three men, most lofty seducers, who g have drawn about a third part of the people to the worship of Christ by the persuasion of their unceasing address, and even the shrines of our gods, lofty with ancient workmanship, and holy with the religion of our most sacred ceremonies, they have overturned by the powers of profane authority."
[6] They are sent into custody, are reproached by the judge, Then Cornelius, inflamed with the seething of diabolical madness, ordered them to be consigned to the bolts of the lofty prison. Who also, when, on his return, they were presented to him by the duties of the guards, he said to them: "Do not the examples of the rest, who boasted themselves in the superstition of the Christian religion, deter you, who presume to worship as God him who is known to be born of Jewish stock, and under their just rage, scourged with blows, fixed to the gibbet, condemned to the vengeance of death, buried as a man in common condition? And yet the reverend deities of the gods you despise with profane abuse, and at the same time you condemn the decrees of the most invincible Princes with contumacious insolence; and the people, serving in the ancient ceremonies of the temples, you scatter by the subversion of a new error?"
[7] They answer steadfastly, Felix indeed, armed with the authority of the confession he had taken up, with steadfast faith and mind replied: "Those damned with lamentable loss by the senses of impious persuasion, for this reason the error of profound ignorance darkens, because they do not receive the mysteries of heavenly secrets, nor does the splendor of any truth illuminate them. Therefore the contemplation of souls must rather be unfolded by the clarity of faith, than that of bodies: and it must be understood that these gods, whom with such boasting and assertion of falsehood you exalt, cannot be called gods at all, since they are known to be fabricated by the shaping of your hands. Tell me, what aid of healing will they be able to provide to those praying, by whom they are proved to have taken their beginning? And when their makers succumb to the fragility of constant death, by the eternity of what deity do they themselves subsist? They explain the nature of God: For God is, almighty, the initiator of things past, the ruler of things present, the disposer of things to come: who created the human race, formed in the procreation of his image and likeness, and commanded them to serve him. Therefore it is unworthy that a creature, serving a creature, should be ignorant of its own author. Whom if thou shalt receive with a mind full of faith, having neglected the ridiculous veneration of thy deities, thou wilt easily be able to merit the rewards of eternal life, and to arrive at the blessedness of the ineffable gifts of the heavenly dwelling."
[8] To these things Cornelius, persisting in the deliberation of obstinate perdition, said: "You ought rather to take more wholesome counsel, that, having received the talents of gold and silver by the bounty of my liberality, the security of salvation might claim you; than that for the perpetrated crime of so great a wickedness, the pain of manifold torments should consume you, and your bodies should not even come to ordinary or common burial." Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus said: "Those who persevere in denying the power of Christ by damned treachery shall perish with the bondage of eternal destruction. But us neither h does the credulous promise offered by thy piety solicit, They despise both the threatener and the flatterer, nor does the unending torture of punishments disturb: because our God always bestows upon his servants faith in the encounter, virtue in the contest, victory in the consummation. For it is more glorious to obtain the perpetual life of eternal blessedness, than to succumb with deadly credulity to the error of diabolical persuasion: because whoever abandons the rudder of the right course, deservedly, dashed against the rocks of shipwreck, falls."
[9] Then Cornelius, inflamed with poisonous indignation of mind, ordered them to be scourged with the harshest flogging of sinews by the instance of the lictors. They are beaten with sinews cruelly. Who amid the very blessed sufferings, by the instruction of the prophetic lesson sang: "Let the proud be confounded, because they have unjustly done iniquity against me: but I will be occupied in thy commandments." Psalm 118:78 Cornelius indeed said: "Behold our gods, whom you have despised to adore with profane resistance, direct the punishments of their avenging wrath against you. Where now is your Christ, who neither helps you laboring with the protection of his virtue, nor rescues you set free by the support of his power?" S. Felix thus answered: "If the blindness of deadly error did not hold thy mind, thou wouldst discern that we, whom thou believest to be furrowed by the laceration of thy scourges, but they remain unharmed. not even the traces of the impressed welts stain us." Cornelius, confused by the wonder of the present virtue, said: "Because i you, afflicted with the torments of so many scourges, do not cease to revile our most invincible gods, the bolts of the foulest prison shall receive your perishing bodies, afterwards by the weighing deliberation of my examination, to be intently slaughtered with severer vengeance."
[10] So when the blessed men were placed within the deadly darkness of the prison, and singing together with the strengthening exultation of accustomed modulation; about the middle of the night an Angel was present, and with the guards terrified, bursting the bolts of the most fortified obstacle, led forth by the Angel, and breaking through the thick obscurity of manifold darkness by the flashing of burning light, said to them: "Go now, faithful confessors of God, defended not by the shield or helmet of earthly protection, but armed with the confidence of divine power: and the mute images, composed by the art shaping perdition, subverted or shattered, with unfeigned faith, quickly scatter." They shatter the statues of the gods, They, hastening with devoted mind to fulfill the heavenly commands, unbolting the obstacles of the temples, reduced the statue of Jupiter, gleaming with the preciousness of amber, to dust with a smith's hammer they had seized: similarly they broke the statues of Mercury and Saturn.
[11] Wherefore Cornelius, exceedingly angry, ordered the soldiers of Christ to be seized again, and every kind of torment to be expended on them. To whom, brought before him, he said: k "Tell me the power of your Christ, in whom you have so much confidence, that you did not hesitate to break our gods." The Martyrs of God, explaining to the Duke the power of Christ, as if replying with one mouth, said: "Although thou art unworthy to hear the mystery of the Deity; nevertheless on account of the people standing faithfully by for the preaching of God, of Christ, who is truth, we will bring forth a discourse. Christ the son of God is the power of God, and the wisdom of God; through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made: who so grieved over one lost sheep that he sought it in the desert, and when he had found it placed it on his shoulders, and carried it back to the flock, and said rejoicing to his friends and neighbors: 'Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which I had lost.' Thou indeed, if thou shouldst will to believe in him, thou shalt be able to perceive his power: who is proved to have had the virtue of such great power, that Lazarus, already stinking in the torpor of a four-day burial, he recalled to the breath of pristine life: he also walked upon the sea with dry foot; and miracles, and with five loaves only and two fishes fed five thousand mortals, satiating them with immortal viands; he curbed the storms of raging winds by the tranquillity of his commanding word. For he is rightly adored by the miracles of such great signs, who the passages of ears, obstructed by the condemnation of thickness, he commanded by his medicine to be reformed to pristine hearing; the eyes of the blind, shut by the cloud of inflicted obduration, he restored to the uses to be enjoyed of the opened new light: the steps of the feet, taken away by the shattering of debility, he reformed by the mercy of divine assistance: those also drenched with the filth of leprosy, with the scab of the rotting decay wiped away, he ordered to be made bright by the restoration of revived flesh. For he, God worthily both of his divinity and majesty, is alone believed, and loved with all the affections of the heart and strength of the body, and feared with the testimonies of distinguished miracles."
[12] Then Cornelius, overcome by the series of truth and on this account more and more inflamed, they are most cruelly tormented; ordered them, with their hands bound behind their backs, their loins and legs broken, to be bound around the whirling of wheels, with the bitterness of smoke or cloud placed beneath, to be suspended day and night continuously in the extension of the rack. Whom also, insane cruelty pressing, the lictors berated, saying: "Those who presume to shatter the gods with saucy rashness ought to lose their nefarious life by such punishments. If however that Christ prevails by this deity, by which you boast him to have the greatness of his name, let him rescue you by his power, let him remove the torments, let him burst the bonds."
[13] Steadfastly persevering On the following day Cornelius ordered them to be loosened, a little release being imparted, from the bonds of their fetters: to whom he said: "Sacrifice to the gods, whom you boldly defiled by shattering: perhaps you shall obtain their indulgence, that with the application of the zeal of physicians you shall be able to come to pristine soundness." But they answered saying: "If you knew anything to exist in these gods, they would have provided themselves with the necessary supports of protection; and they would be believed to be considered great by an alien remedy, if l they had been recognized to have freed themselves from their own destruction. he is beheaded with the sword: Therefore we consider it better to succumb, about to purchase the rewards of eternal life, for the confession of our God, than to serve the ceremonies of your perdition." Then, with the victorious triumph of a more glorious contest now imminent, Cornelius ordered them to be struck down by the cutting of the sword. Who, by the ministers according to the commands of the Duke, being led outside the city, and nevertheless preaching to the surrounding multitude of peoples, in the place of prayer which they had built for themselves, and which had been m defiled by the attack of the persecutors, attained the reward of consummated martyrdom: and in the nighttime, buried, they shine with miracles. by the faith or zeal of the Christians, they were buried with fitting celebration: where by the testimony of divine remuneration miracles are proved to occur assiduously. They are invoked by the writer. There, by the entreaty of our weeping prevailing, may they deign, with supernal suffrage aiding us, to protect their own city, to strengthen the needy with the help of mercy, and also to loose the bound chains of the manifold offences of the people, with our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor, power and virtue, with the Father and Holy Spirit, n in perfect Trinity, forever and ever. Amen.